This invention relates to paper substrate transaction card and display carrier, and more particularly, to the method of simultaneously manufacturing paper substrate transaction cards and display carriers.
Current manufacturing of paper transaction card and display carrier are taking place using the same manufacturing sheet-fed methods used to produce plastic substrate transaction cards and in a separate production run to manufacture paper substrate display carriers to which the transaction cards get affixed to in order to be displayed for sale. This results in an overall cost of the paper transaction card/carrier to be either the same or more expensive than the traditional plastic transaction card/carrier even though base materials may be a lower cost for paper transaction cards and display carriers than plastic transaction cards and their accompanying paper substrate display carriers.
Current manufacturers of paper transaction cards employ sheet-fed methods for manufacture because the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) specifications require transaction cards to be between 24 and 30 mils thick (plus or minus 10%). Intuition tells most manufacturers that substrates in the defined thicknesses are unlikely to lie flat if they are manufactured off rolled substrates (continuous web). Because a majority of transaction cards must have their magnetic stripe swiped through a card reader for validation and activation purposes it is imperative that the transaction card remain almost perfectly flat.
Currently paper substrate transaction cards are made by feeding and printing single sheets of paper 24 to 30 mils thick (plus or minus 10%). Paper stock can be finished to the preferred thickness usually 24 or 30 mils. Traditional paper substrate transaction card manufacturers currently do not have the capability to perfect paper sheets to the preferred thickness while also printing fronts and backs of the card let alone simultaneously printing the display carrier at the same time through one press pass. Rather, these traditional paper card/carrier manufacturers must first print the fronts of the card, then turn the sheets over and run the sheets through the press again in order to print the card backs or vice versa. On each sheet a step and repeat method allows for the production of up to 100 cards per sheet with most manufacturers producing 80 cards per sheet. They employ an entirely separate production run for the manufacture of accompanying display carriers stepped and repeated in smaller increments on the sheet layout as most display carriers are more than two times larger than transaction cards.
Depending upon the capabilities and the equipment, traditional paper card/carrier manufacturers have to add special varnishes or ultraviolet light-cured (UV) finishes that requires a separate pass through a different manufacturing and printing machine. This may also be true if the transaction card/carrier decoration requires metallic or holographic foils. Card/carrier designers may also require a very thick layer of ink or varnish that traditionally requires silkscreen manufacturing equipment and yet another manufacturing operation and pass.
A traditional manufacturer of paper or plastic transaction cards usually adds the cards' magnetic stripes in a separate operation by laminating a thin film laminate already containing the magnetic stripe in the proper position to the reverse of the card sheet. Next the sheet of cards either goes directly through a die-cutting process or goes through a sheet cutting process to reduce the sheet of cards down to smaller sheets in order to go through the die cutting process.
For cards that require a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip and antenna, the traditional card manufacturer must print separate sheets of paper, such as half normal thickness, for the card fronts and backs. Then, a thin film laminate with the RFID chips and antennas are placed in the proper position to follow the layout of the card, the manufacturer has to align the front sheet, the RFID sheet and the back sheet all together, then put it through a lamination process before going through the die cutting process.
Once the cards have been die cut to single cards a separate operation has to be performed to encode the magnetic stripe (usually to embed the card's serial number into it so that a magnetic stripe reader can read it for validation) and add a serial number using inkjet or thermal printing.
Single cards may also have to go through an RFID encoder to program the cards' RFID chips. Numbering can also be done together with this operation. Usually the manufacturer cannot encode the magnetic stripe and encode the RFID chip in the same pass.
With or without RFID, in the past when a transaction card was also required to be affixed to a display carrier, the card and the carrier were always produced in separate production runs. The main reason other than most traditional card-on-carrier applications are plastic card on paper carrier (two different substrates) is because the display carrier is a much thinner substrate than the transaction card (usually half as thick). Up until now this has made simultaneous production impossible and impractical.
Because the current traditional manufacturing method for paper substrate transaction cards are priced comparably or higher compared to plastic substrate card, adoption to paper card by conventional techniques has been slow even though a paper card biodegrades much faster than plastic.
Transaction card buyers want to be “green” but feel they can only be green if paper transaction cards are at least as economical as or more economical than plastic transaction cards.
The manufacturing costs of such an invention for manufacturing paper substrate transaction cards offer great benefits over current traditional manufacturing methods even when just manufacturing transaction cards alone. By also adding the benefit being able to simultaneously produce the display carrier (which many transaction cards must have for selling displays) economic benefits are even greater over traditional methods.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an improved method for manufacturing paper substrate transaction cards and display carrier which overcomes most, if not all of the preceding problems and disadvantages.